Toledo Upsets Cincinnati

After the Virginia Tech game, I wrote this. 

I think even the most ardent Bearcat fan shares my next thought. It feels like there is a pendulum hanging over the rest of the season where Munchie is going to cost the team a close game. That pendulum could never fall. I hope it never does. The win Saturday could be karmic justice for the final drive last year against West Virginia when Munchie got the team down the field but the game tying field goal was blocked. The feeling that Saturday's magic was a one time thing won't go away until Munchie is better than 19-42. I think you can say Cincinnati is the second best team in the Big East. I think you can say they could be the best. What we do know is that Teddy Bridgewater isn't going 19-42. Gary Nova threw 42 passes in a game and completed 23. I believe in Munchie. I hope my gut is wrong.

My gut was not wrong. Munchie Legaux was not the only reason Cincinnati lost. He was a gigantic one. He was just 15-36 for 228 yards. He threw 1 TD to 2 INTs. The first INT was a telegraphed pass where the starred down Anthony McClung and was picked for a TD. The second INT came in the closing seconds, when he starred down Damon Julian. 

Muchie was bad. So bad someone wanted me to name this piece Munchiepocalypse. What was the killer in my eyes was the playcalling. Munchie started the game something like 4-13. Cincinnati ran the ball for around 180 yards in the first half. It was 16-13 then. The Bearcats finished with 249. The playcalling was poor. Toledo couldn't stop George Winn. He ran 16 times for 84 yards. RDA IV ran 9 times for 98 yards. Munchie even ran for 66 yards and a TD. Multiple drives, including the second to last drive, stalled out when UC went pass, pass, pass. Most of those passes were incomplete, incomplete, incomplete. You have to put your team in position to win. The passing game was not working. Even the TD pass was a prayer that Damon Julian went up and caught. 

The defense was pretty solid. They gave up 12 points. That being said, they could not stop Toledo late. The Rockets went on a 15 play, 59 yard drive that took nearly 7 minutes of game time. The Rockets didn't do anything special. they just ran the ball. UC couldn't stop it. The absense of Walter Stewart, maybe for the season, loomed large. The Bearcats struggled with a pass rush all night. I think the only sack they had was by Adrian Witty, who was great. They really missed 54. 

The back breaker in the game was late in the 3rd quarter. UC took the lead on the Julian TD catch. Bernard Reedy took the kick back 91 yards to get the lead right back. There was a flag for a block in the back. The flag was picked up for some reason. It looked to be a clear block in the back on the replay. Some calls don't go your way. If you don't want to worry about it, you don't give up kick returns for touchdowns. 

I don't even know what to say. This one just hurts. One of the things I wrote in the preview that this was a game UC couldn't start slowly. They were down 10-0 after 2 drives. They couldn't mess around with Toledo. They did. They lost. It's time for some drinking. Straight to the hard stuff. 

Click continue reading for the ESPN box score if you want.